Friday, 10 March 2017

REMEMBERING THE EMPLOYEES OF MANCHESTER CORPORATION TRAMWAYS ......... Another story from Martin Logan

In my research of the Manchester Corporation Transport Employees on the WW1 Memorial Plaque I am greatly indebted to the Museum of Transport Manchester. In their vast archive of Manchester transport history in Manchester they have a copy of the Manchester Corporation Tramways Department Roll of Honour of The Great War.

It contains the names, grades and regiments of 2,889 employees of MCT who enlisted to fight in the Great War. It also lists 227 employees who died and 38 who were missing. However these listings are only up to the 30th June 1918. They are not a complete list of all those who died as the Memorial Plaque has 310 names on it.

That being said this booklet has proved most invaluable to me in my research of those 310 employees who perished in the Great War. However there are many inaccuracies and mistakes within the Roll of Honour and as a result it has made it quite difficult at times to locate a number of these men on the many WW1 websites.

The first name on the Memorial Plaque I had difficulty with was GAGAN W A.

For months I was frustrated at not finding this person. Then I had a hunch and looked at the name and its phonetic sound and then it clicked.

The name should have been Geoghegan WA and his history opened up before me. This person was Arthur Geoghegan, a driver with MCT.

He was 4635 sergeant of the 7th Battalion Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. He was killed on the 26/09/1917 and is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial panel 102 and 104. He was the husband of Mary Ellen Geoghegan of 1 Emma Street Gorton Manchester. For 94 years his name has been spelt wrong on the Memorial Plaque.

The second name that was giving me problems was HEALD W. No matter how many times I typed this name into the various military websites the results proved negative. Then a colleague of mine, with the Western Front Association, who is helping me with problem names on the Memorial Plaque, had an idea.

His research brought up the following results.
Robert William Temple-Heald was born on the 16th November 1893. According to the 1911 Census his occupation was Tram Car Trolley Boy Corporation Tramways. His parents were Robert William and Mary Elizabeth Temple-Heald. He was the middle child of seven siblings. His name has also been inscribed wrongly on the Plaque

The CWGC website states he is Temple-Heald, William, Service No B/3048 8th battalion Rifle Brigade. He died on the 31/07/1915 and is remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial panel 46-48 and 50. He was 21 years of age.

For nearly 100 years these employees’ names have been spelt wrong on the Memorial and it is my sincere hope that this wrong can be put right.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Author, historian, researcher

Twitter

Manchester Remembering 1914-18

Other books ..... The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester Pubs, Hough End Hall, The Story Didsbury Through Time, The Pubs and Bars of Chorlton ........Coming soon ......The history of the Together Trust